Assembly nixes vape tax veto

PALMER — “Vapes” and e-cigarettes will stay in the same category as tobacco products – cigars, cheroots, stogies, periques and snuff – at least for now.

The borough assembly overrode a mayoral veto by a 5-2 vote and left the increasingly-popular vaporizers subject to a 55 percent excise tax at the Sept. 1 regular meeting. Testimony on the subject dominated the public comments section of the meeting, which was moved on the agenda to accommodate the large volume of testimony. Supporters of the veto generally said vaporizers had saved lives by allowing long-time smokers to quit smoking, and reducing their nicotine habits to manageable and affordable levels. Opponents of the veto generally said they were concerned about the use of the colorful liquids by children emulating adults, as well as concerns about the health risks of nicotine.

What was missing from either side of the argument Tuesday were hard facts or figures about vaping’s effects on the body. Many experts and government agencies — including the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration — point out that while some concerns remain, a lot of information about adverse health effects is unavailable due to a lack of study.

Opponents counter that the tax, which supporters characterized as a measure designed to decrease availability for children, would actually have the opposite effect.

“Local shops ID their customers, and they only sell to ages 19 and up,” said Jay Jones. “As it is, ordering online is approximately 15 to 20 percent cheaper than buying at a local store and there is no ID requirement to ordering online.”

Jones said he smoked for 17 years, and had quit for two years using vaping as a replacement, a common theme among those who testified. Studies cited by the NIH have found “e-cigarettes may help smokers quit smoking or reduce harm by smoking fewer tobacco cigarettes without any remarkable adverse events or risks for the user or the bystander,” according to the journal article entitled “Achieving appropriate regulations for electronic cigarettes” from the March 2014 edition of the Journal Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease.

“Why would you impose a tax on something that could help so many people?” Jones said. “If you talk to any vaper, they’ll tell you, ‘Vaping is saving my life.’”

Tax supporters point to success with other tobacco excise taxes, saying they had reduced youth accessibility to tobacco, and would work for vaping, too. Smoking had decreased among Mat-Su teens had fallen more than 19 percent between 2005 and 2011, said Mat Su Health Foundation Executive Director Elizabeth Ripley. NIH studies have found teens who vape are much more likely to take up traditional smoking.

“Tonight we’re at a crossroads,” she said. “E-cigarettes are erasing decades of progress at preventing youth smoking.”

Health foundation officials also criticized a survey published by National Health England, a department within the British National Health Service and cited by, among others, the Frontiersman, saying researchers for that survey had ties to the tobacco industry.

Assemblymen Steve Colligan and Ron Arvin voted against the measure to override Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss’ veto because of concerns about collecting the tax — Colligan voted against the measure the first time — and because of concern that the regulation could inadvertently include other materials not containing nicotine alongside others. Because the veto occurred so long after the enactment date, some portion of the tax between the effective date and the veto would have to be collected retroactively.

Arvin said the veto should stand for now in order to allow new legislation to be drafted.

“It appears as though there’s full agreement that there’s still some work to do (on the legislation),” Arvin said. “Procedurally, it seems like the most straightforward thing to do would be to let the veto stand and then immediately go to work with the industry and others to come up with legislation that is more agreeable than what we’ve heard. Otherwise, it gets kind of complicated real fast.”

Assemblyman Jim Sykes voted in favor, and said even though the legislation was passed, the assembly would try to work with the industry going forward.

In other business, the assembly tabled a vote on a below-market sale of borough land for the creation of a gun range in the Knik-Fairview area, near the newly constructed Joe Redington, Junior Senior/Junior.

Contact Reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.